Walter Heurtley Braithwaite (1906–1991) was a composer, pianist and teacher. He was born in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

on 24 August 1906, the third of five children born to Rev. Herbert Morris Braithwaite (Rector of St. Michael's, Gloucester; a grandson of

Anna Braithwaite Anna Braithwaite (born Anna Lloyd; 27 December 1788 – 18 December 1859) was a prominent English Quaker minister. She visited the United States three times in an effort to avoid the schism created by the views of Elias Hicks. Life Anna Lloyd was ...

) and Juliet Mary née Young (daughter of Richard Young, bishop of Athabasca). He moved to

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

with his wife Sophy Kathleen Cottrell and became an important member in the founding of both

Sunfield Children's Home Sunfield is an Independent special school, Children's Home and charity on the border of Worcestershire and the West Midlands in England. It was founded in 1930 and now supports boys and girls, aged 6 – 19 years, with complex learning needs, ...

and later

Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School Limited is an independent school situated in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It educates around 260 children aged from 3 to 17 who follow the international Steiner Waldorf Education curriculum.Stourbridge. Thus he worked with

Fried Geuter Carl Friedrich Wilhelm "Fried" Geuter (born 27 June 1892 in Darmstadt, Germany, and died on 14 February 1960 in Ravenswood, United Kingdom), was a pioneer of anthroposophical Special Needs education, the co-founder of Sunfield Children's Home and ...

, Michael Wilson (incidentally a distant cousin of his), John Kobbe (his brother-in-law) and

Eileen Hutchins Eileen Morley Hutchins, born 28 June 1902 in Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire and died 9 October 1987 in Stourbridge was a Steiner school teacher, writer and founder of the Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge. Biography Together with her sis ...

. He composed songs for school plays and festivals, taught music and piano, and accompanied eurythmy lessons. Works include a Sonata for Violin & Piano; Incidental Music for a production of The Merchant of Venice; Music for the Act of Consecration for Piano or Strings, and many other short pieces and songs, arrangements of carols and folk-songs. He also wrote about music theory, teaching and improvisation. For much of his life Braithwaite lived with his family in Corser Street, Stourbridge.Walter Braithwaite, ''A Book of Songs: Volume Two'' (Stourbridge: privately published, 1978), p. 3 Instruments he owned here included two upright pianos (one of them hand-painted red and blue), a harmonium, and two square pianos, one of which he converted into a clavichord. He was an early member of

The Christian Community The Christian Community (german: Die Christengemeinschaft) is an esoteric Christian denomination. It was founded in 1922 in Switzerland by a group of ecumenically oriented, mainly Lutheran theologians and ministers led by liberal theologian Frie ...

church in Stourbridge, for which he wrote music and played piano. He died in Clent on 18 August 1991. In 1970 he published his first ''Book of Songs'', with a foreword written by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...

. The second ''Book of Songs'' appeared in 1978, and a second edition of the first book came out in 1984 to raise money for the new Christian Community chapel in Baylie Street, Stourbridge. Two of the songs in the first book, 'Ut queant laxis' and 'The Spring by the Wayside (Bare is the Rock)', are still regularly sung at Elmfield School assemblies.

References

External links

Sunfield School, History
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Braithwaite, Walter (Composer) 20th-century British composers People from Gloucester People from Stourbridge English composers 1906 births 1991 deaths Musicians from Gloucestershire Anthroposophists 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century English musicians